Engineers at the University of Southampton in the UK have designed, printed, and sent skyward the world’s first aircraft manufactured almost entirely via 3-D printing technology. The UAV--dubbed SULSA (Southampton University Laser
Sintered Aircraft)--is powered by an electric motor that is pretty much
the only part of the aircraft not created via additive manufacturing
methods.

It’s no slouch of a UAV either. SULSA boasts a 6.5-foot wingspan, a
top speed of about 100 miles per hour, and is nearly silent while
cruising. Created on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine,
its wings, hatches, control surfaces--basically everything that makes up
its structure and aerodynamic controls--was custom printed to snap
together. It requires no fasteners and no tools to assemble.

This,
of course, is the dream of aircraft makers big and small. Building
something as large as a Boeing 787 for instance requires a lot of
machining, a lot of custom tooling, and above all a lot of waste.
Additive manufacturing (that’s a fancy way of saying 3-D printing)
builds components layer by layer, allowing designers to create parts
with virtually no waste. It also lets them tweak designs on the fly and
go from CAD drawing to prototype extremely quickly (which is why it’s
also referred to as “rapid prototyping”).